Employment Scam: Unemployed Youths Storm Abuja Federal Secretariat

 Hundreds of unemployed youths from various parts of the country besieged the Federal Secretariat Abuja to submit their credentials for employment into the federal civil service.


Their hope was however dashed as security personnel from the Nigerian Police and Nigerian Legion prevented them from invading the complex because the scheme was a scam.

The crowd which started converging as early as 6am on Tuesday, claimed to have heard repeated announcements for the submission of their credentials via radio and television.

Muhammad Bello, an indigene of Kogi State and a lady who identified herself as Ashmau, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare state of emergency on unemployment in order to avert social unrest.

Bello, who resides in Abuja, said: “We learnt that some of the documents were collected yesterday manually but on getting here this morning, we learnt that it was false information.

“You know graduates are numerous across the country, they have the ability and eager to work but there’s no work.”

On her part, Ashmau, also from Kogi State, denied knowledge of the rejoinder pasted at the entrance of the federal secretariat.

“Really, we don’t have anything doing for so long, so I’ve come to submit my CV but they (security personnel) were asking for our staff ID cards before we can enter,” she said.

One of the management staff at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, who did not want his name in print, expressed concern over the ugly development.

“I met some ladies crying in my office early this morning, who were begging for employment. It took us more than one hour to convince them that the information was false.

“As you can see on my table, these are some of the press releases we issued yesterday (Monday) and pasted across the premises even at the major entrances leading into the federal secretariat complex.

“The steps taken so far by the Ministry were to avoid avoidable exploitation of unsuspecting youths. Some unscrupulous elements are already capitalising on the situation to extort money from them under the guise of securing federal appointment.

“Seeing what is happening, we are all aware that the problems at hand is enormous, and we are sure Federal Government will ensure that the employment programme will be made public as soon as arrangements are concluded,” he said.

Few of the youths, including married women who sneaked into the premises through the assistance of some staff, had heated discussions with the security operatives attached to the office of the.

In response to the development, the Minister, Dr Chris Ngige, issued a statement issued assuring Nigerians of the present administration’s commitment “to the creation of decent employment opportunities for teeming unemployed Nigerians.”

He revealed that the government had perfected plans for massive job creation through well thought out programmes such as Graduate Teachers Conversion Programme, Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS), Vocational Skills Acquisition and Upgrading and Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) for vulnerable persons including market women.”